Washington: Cuba has arrested the son of the late revolutionary leader Juan Almeida on his way to a protest march, a clandestine human rights group has said demanding that he be released at once for medical reasons.
The Cuban Committee on Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCHDRN) said Almeida was arrested on Friday, adding, "According to our preliminary investigations, he committed no crime."
The group asked that Almeida, 43, be set free immediately "taking into account that he suffers from a dangerous degenerative disease that could worsen under subhuman conditions of confinement."
Almeida's arrest follows a Human Rights Watch report earlier this month about the continued harassment and arrest of dissidents under President Raul Castro.
Titled ‘New Castro, Same Cuba’, the report documents 40 arrests of dissidents since Raul took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro in July 2006.
Almeida is one of nine children of commander Juan Almeida Bosque, who along with Fidel and Raul Castro formed the triumvirate of power after the 1959 revolution that ushered in Castro's communist dictatorship.
Juan Almeida was previously arrested in May when he attempted to join his wife in Miami, Florida. Two months ago he published a book in Spain on his experience with Cuban leadership.
PTI
First Published: Monday, November 30, 2009, 13:26